


For Here is Rest

by rinskiroo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff and Angst, Force Shenanigans, Found Family, Home, Mutual Pining, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Self-Discovery, Self-Doubt, unintentional Master Rey, weird Force stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22517218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinskiroo/pseuds/rinskiroo
Summary: Rey doesn't see a place for herself among what's left of the Resistance or what they're trying to build, so she leaves; wanders an empty galaxy in search of the place where she feels comfort.  It leads her Kes Dameron's doorstep.
Relationships: Kes Dameron & Rey, Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 95
Kudos: 172





	1. Kes

The girl shows up first. Her saucer ship sets down in the grass and she fidgets with the wrappings around her arms when he opens the door.

“Are you, Kes Dameron?” she asks.

“Yep,” he lets out in a long drawl.

“I was wondering if I could visit with your tree.” She looks like she realizes it’s a strange request and winces slightly. But she looks hopeful, her brown eyes, with specks of green floating in them, are wide and kind.

Kes looks out behind her—the _Millennium Falcon_ , a ship he hasn’t seen in he doesn’t know how many years just lounging there on his property. Two droids—one he knows and one he doesn’t—wobble behind her. “Hey, ball,” he says and gives BB-8 a wink. Grabbing his hat off the peg next to the door, he steps out of his house. He leans heavily on the banister as he takes the few steps down off the porch and walks along a dirt path that curves around his house.

The girl seems a bit confused at first, but catches up. The droids roll along behind her. “Is that a yes?” she asks.

“Yep,” he says again.

The tree is looking as it ever does—big, wide, and a bit glowy. After he’d received news from his son that they’d found Luke Skywalker, and a young woman who was going to go train with him, Kes knew it wouldn’t be long until they showed up around here.

“See the one on Coruscant?” he asks as he watches her take it in. It’s a sight to behold, even if he still doesn’t quite understand it. It’s grown in thirty years what most trees would grow in a hundred—not to mention the shimmering effect.

“No, it’s too busy there.” She steps up to the tree and runs her fingers along the bark reverently.

Kes never really understood the Force, still doesn’t, but he’d seen the way Luke and Leia had interacted with the thing. Sometimes, he wishes he could hear its stories, but then he also really enjoys the quiet. “That there is where Poe ran that lousy pod-racer engine into it,” he tells her as he watches as she touches an uneven patch of bark.

She chuckles lightly, like it’s the sort of thing she expects from his son. “He set the _Falcon_ on fire,” she tells him in a way that conveys she’s still harboring a bit of irritation, but trying to let it go.

Kes full on laughs. Hand on his stomach, and nearly doubles over. “If Han Solo were alive, that would knock him dead. Poe Dameron flying the _Falcon_.” He’ll be sure to bring that up if his son ever deigns to visit home again.

“He was always getting into trouble then?” she asks with amusement, and a curiosity that Kes doesn’t miss.

“Yep.” Kes wipes at his eyes and then nods at her to keep following him. “I built this addition when my Shara… you know.” He knows the girl doesn’t know, or maybe she does, but he doesn’t really want to explain it right now.

It’s just a small house, two rooms, kitchenette, refresher, and some storage. He’d built it for Shara’s dad way back when, but it turned out to be unnecessary. It’s been empty and unused for almost thirty years, but in the past few months he’s had the urge to clean it up. Maybe Poe would come home now that the war’s over, or… something. Kes tries not to think of why he felt he had to do it, he just did it.

“I don’t—” the girl starts, but Kes cuts her off.

“You make sure she knows when supper is, and all the rules, yeah?” he asks, looking down at the round droid.

BB-8 chirps and his dome lolls one way and then back the other.

“I don’t plan on staying long,” she finally gets out.

“Well, you can use it for however long you do.” Kes starts to leave, to go back to his house and his routine, but he stops and looks back at her. “You know, he never goes anywhere without that droid.”

She looks down at BB-8, who in turn looks back up at her. Her lips curl slightly, like she’s trying to suppress the smile that the answer provokes. “He thought I might get lonely.”

“Uh-huh.” Kes narrows his eyes on the droid and reminds him, “The _rules_ , ball.”

As he walks back to the house, Kes tries not to clap his hands together too loudly and chuckles to himself.

A child arrives next. It’s been a few weeks and Rey (they’re on a first name basis now) still insists she’s only here short-term. But apparently the tree has so much to share with her, and it’s taking longer than she thought. Neither of them know the boy who comes, only that he came here chasing a feeling. He’d had a dream about this place—about Kes’ tree.

“How old are you, boy?” Kes asks him.

“Thirteen, sir.”

Kid doesn’t look like it. Probably malnourished, and not exposed to enough sunlight.

“Your parents?” he asks. Kes thinks he probably knows the answer, but he should ask anyway.

“Don’t got none. I was a slave. I escaped.”

Kes nods and brings him inside; Rey trails wide-eyed behind them. “Let’s make sure you don’t got a tracker in you. You can have my son’s room. Let Master Rey keep her space.”

He looks back at Rey who opens her mouth to say something, but then closes it. She tells him later though, after they’ve pulled the tracking chip out of the boy’s back and smashed it, given him some food, and then sent him to get some rest.

“I can’t train anyone,” she whispers sharply to Kes.

“Okay.” Kes shrugs.

“Don’t you think that’s why he came here?”

Kes shrugs again.

“ _You_ called me _Master_ Rey.” Her voice has risen slightly and she points an accusing finger at him.

Well, she's got him there.

“And I don’t know how long I’ll be staying.” Again, with that old excuse, and she crosses her arms across her chest.

“Uh-huh.”

The boy and the girl sit and stare at the tree. She teaches him to breathe, to find calm and balance, and eventually they lift a nervous green droid off the dirt. “No, thank you,” D-O chitters. Kes smirks from his porch.

Another boy arrives, slightly younger than the first. And then a girl with her younger brother. Kes thinks he’ll need to build another addition.

“How are they all finding us?” Rey asks.

No one is sent away. Though Kes can tell that some days Rey feels overwhelmed with their new charges. He puts them to work on his farm, too, to give her some space because all four staring at her with those big, expectant eyes can be a bit much. Plus, two of them are siblings which produces its own set of squabbles. He orders a pre-fab because building some barracks from scratch would take too long, and probably end up costing more. They sleep in tents in the yard until he can hire some extra hands (that aren’t child hands) to help set it up. The kids don’t seem to mind.

Jannah and Finn, Rey calls them, are the next set to arrive, though they come in hard and screaming. Jannah’s pulling Finn, who can barely stand, down the ramp of their ship, crying for help. Kes races out first, with Rey close behind. The kids huddle on the porch and watch in awe and fear.

“What’s happened?” Rey asks, her voice strained.

“I don’t know,” Jannah tells them. “We were in this complex that used to be held by the First Order. They had all these strange artifacts. Finn… Finn said he felt it calling to him.”

“Oh, Finn…” Rey chokes back a sob, but tears are streaming down her face and falling in fat drops onto Finn’s arm.

Kes helps Jannah drag him into the house, barking at the kids to get out of the way—find something else to do rather than gawk. They’re all confused and afraid, of course, but Kes has never been the coddling type.

“Master Rey, will he be all right?” the first, eldest boy asks.

It takes her a minute to regain ahold on her composure. “Yes, yes,” she tells him. “Go power down Jannah’s ship for them, please?”

Finn’s physical injuries are easy enough to heal—dehydration and some burns on his hands. Something’s happened to the kid’s mind, though, and that’s far beyond Kes’ ability to cure or even understand. Finn’s able to move around well enough after a couple days. He eats, and otherwise takes care of himself, but something isn’t all the way on upstairs anymore.

Rey take him out to sit with her little gaggle of padawans every day and includes him in their activities. He sits cross-legged and listens to her, just as any of the other kids do. She takes extra time to try and commune with the tree; tries to get Finn to talk to the tree, too. There are… middling results.

“He’s still in there,” she tells Kes one night as they make dinner. “I can feel it.”

Jannah stays, too, and helps Kes finally erect the pre-fab building he bought for the kids. Jannah bunks on their ship, sitting out next to the _Falcon_. Rey moves Finn into the guest house. Kes thinks his quiet farm life is officially over. Though, he thinks he’s not really as bothered as he thought he might be about that.


	2. Rey

Rey doesn’t have a plan when she goes to Yavin IV. She’s heard Poe’s stories about the tree that lives and grows in the Force in his yard and thinks that’s something she’d like to see. And it’s brilliant, of course, just as she thought it would be. But there’s something about this place—the way it lives and breathes—that begs her to stay. There’s Poe’s father, who’s brusque, but caring, and it’s a good feeling, to be cared for and loved—like a daughter.

Then the children start arriving. Rey doesn’t know where they all came from or how they found this place, but they deserve to be here just as much as she does. They’re alone and need someone to care for and nurture them, the way Kes takes care of her. So Rey stays longer than she didn’t plan on. She still thinks she doesn’t know enough about the Force to teach anyone else, but she tries. They meditate and find the balance, try to understand the ancient texts, and listen to what the tree has to say.

It’s quite talkative, if you know how to listen.

All those Jedi that had lent her their power, whose voices called in unison to rebuke darkness, they’re all still there. They exist in the Force always, though they come and go as they please. Rey doesn’t pretend to understand that she knows how any of it works, only that it does, inexplicably.

Now, she sits her dear friend Finn next to the tree and tries to find an answer for why he’s locked himself away. He’s in there, somewhere, she can still feel him. Whatever darkness they had uncovered digging too deep into Sith vaults has chased him back into a corner. He’s strong though, she believes.

“I’ll be your light, Finn,” she says quietly as she sits next to him leaning against the tree. “Just look for me and I’ll guide you back home.”

There’s a humming just beyond where they’re sitting. A loud contemplation that Rey assumes she’s supposed to notice. She looks up at her visitor, pointedly.

“A curious case, indeed,” the older man says, his translucent form glowing next to the tree.

“Master Obi-Wan,” Rey greets him with a sigh. All of her Jedi visitors are cryptic and vague, but it seems the older they get, the more obtuse their commentary. “Do you have any advice on how to help my friend?”

“No,” the old ghost says after a moment. “A better trained Jedi would be able to protect their mind from this sort of intrusion.”

“Finn’s not a Jedi. There are no more Jedi,” she says quietly.

“Indeed. Perhaps you must find a non-Jedi solution.”

Rey sighs at Obi-Wan’s prompt dispersal.

They sit for a time, until BB-8 comes to collect them for supper. Rey helps Finn to his feet and leads him into the house where the entirety of Kes’ sitting room has been overtaken by the dining room. Seven people now sit at a table that once was the domain of only one. It’s gotten a bit crowded, but they’re learning to maneuver around each other. Kes tells them no tricks at the table, but all that’s served to do is teach them to take and pass food with the Force on the sly. Rey smiles at Kes as she slathers honey on her bread. She’s discovered none of Kes’ honed Pathfinder senses have fled him. He knows what he’s doing.

He reminds her so much of Poe.

“I think I’ll take the A-wing out for a bit, if that’s all right?” she asks Kes as they clean up. “I’ll get Finn settled in our rooms.”

“He can sit here and watch a holovid with me. I don’t mind.”

Rey glances back towards Finn, who has already settled himself into the couch squeezed in the corner, waiting for Kes to start the movie. Every day Rey thinks she’s sees a bit more of him. Maybe it won’t take Jedi tricks or Force magic, just time.

“A non-Jedi solution?” she muses to herself and wonders if it can be that easy. She hopes maybe it is.

She puts on an old green flight suit with a new helmet and tells BB-8 maybe they’ll bother Poe to come visit with an X-wing so they can go up together. BB-8 tells her she wouldn’t be a bother, but Rey just gives him a pat before she climbs into the cockpit of Shara Bey’s fighter. It’s hard to imagine this tiny space filled with a grown woman and a small boy both, but Rey does every single time she gets in, ever since Kes told her that story.

Poe’s everywhere here, except he’s not.

It makes Rey scowl even though she has no right to be upset at him. He’s off doing important galaxy building things. But Finn’s here now. And Finn needs him. Rey doesn’t admit she needs him, too.

Rey finds peace in the stars. A different sort of peace than the one she finds on the ground. Yavin has been good for her, though somehow, she still thinks it’s temporary.

Kaleb, the oldest, the first kid to arrive, is waiting for her when she touches down. He wants so desperately to fly on his own. He’s been practicing, he swears. Poe’s got an old flight sim and the kid fixed it up, but Kes isn’t ready to let untested children take his wife’s ship out just yet.

“You know Luke Skywalker was a pilot,” Kaleb tells her as she climbs down from the A-wing.

Rey laughs and nods. Yes, she knows.

“And he told me his father was a pilot. And Obi-Wan, too. In fact, _lots_ of Jedi were pilots!”

“You were talking with Luke?” she asks, amused. She’s not surprised, her old master seems to have a better affinity with a much younger and more impressionable crowd. “I promise, Kaleb, we’ll do flying lessons soon. I just need to make sure the _Falcon_ is cadet-proof. She’s a temperamental old bird”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Master Rey! The Force will be with us.”

With a laugh, Rey nods. “Yes, I suppose it will be. Tomorrow, then.”

There’s a woop before Kaleb skips off back to his room and she can hear him yelling at the other kids that they were going flying tomorrow.

“Good luck,” Kes scoffs out when she tells him.

Rey… did not know what she was getting into. After the first few launch misfires, Rey takes the _Falcon_ into a high orbit around Yavin IV to avoid anyone crashing into Kes’ farm or any nearby towns.

Kaleb does all right once the hard part is out of the way. They fly around the other moons and asteroids. The youngest chases BB-8 through the corridors. The girl, Palka messes with the holochess, but then gets bored and starts opening all of the compartments and screams when she finds a nest of porgs that Rey hasn’t managed to fully clear out. Then Rey has to turn off power to the gunnery station because her fourth student has found it and is having too much fun turning the seat in circles.

“Well,” she starts, trying to plaster on a smile though her head is screaming. “That was a good first outing, but I think it’s time to head back.”

“Already?” Kaleb whines.

“I don’t think Palka is enjoying herself, Dee-oh is hiding from Franz, and I’m not sure Jaxon understands that the cannon isn’t a toy.” Rey thought the others might want to learn to pilot, too, but it’s not going quite the way she envisioned. “Next time we’ll try one-on-one, okay?”

“Yes, Master Rey.”

When the _Falcon_ lands, they find another has come to join them.

“Poe!” Palka squeals and rushes ahead down the ramp to throw her arms around the pilot. Though he doesn’t look much like a pilot anymore in a worn leather jacket and a full beard on his face.

Rey stands at the top of the ramp as she watches as three of the children rush down to greet him. He smiles at them and ruffles their hair and knows each one of their names. As Kaleb comes up behind her to go down with them, she stops him. “I thought you came here chasing a feeling?”

He shrugs. “I did. I met Poe, though, and he put me a on a ship headed here.”

Rey stays at the top of the ramp and lets them all catch up. She waits until he sends them away, tells them to go take care of the chores he knows Kes has given them. She waits until he looks up at her, puts his hands on his hips, and smiles that lop-sided smile.

“You’re a right ray of sunshine,” he tells her.

She doesn’t quite feel it, not after that rough flight lesson. And she’s not entirely sure how to feel about him being here. But she swallows all her mixed feelings and walks down the ramp to stand right in front of him.

“You sent them here?” she asks.

“Yeah, well, Kaleb was kind of an accident. He was in trouble and I didn’t really know what to do.”

“And the others?” she continues, an eyebrow perched high.

Poe laughs and scratches at the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I should have—I just felt—” He sighs, unsure of exactly what he’s trying to get out. Instead, he takes a breath and a chance and reaches forward and envelopes her in his arms. He’s warm and hard and soft all at the same time, and smells like stale, recirculated air, but Rey leans in and wraps her arms around him, reveling in the memory of this feeling.

“I know,” she sighs. The Force is leading Poe around just as much as it is everyone else on this moon. There’s no way he would have been able to just leave those children, and he sent them to the one place he knew they’d be safe.

“Why were you away so long?” she asks quietly. She didn’t want to admit it, but she has to now. She came to Yavin because she expected Poe would eventually come home and every day that he didn’t, she wondered if it was because she had moved in. Taken over.

“I was looking for someone. I didn’t know it until they found me.”

Poe’s current ship is a small freighter, and standing just near it, watching the surroundings, is a very small person in gleaming armor. Rey’s never seen a Mandalorian before, but even she can tell by the unique shape of the helmet that’s the creed this one ascribes to. She didn’t think Mandalorian fighters could be so young, but perhaps they’re not, for there are two large, green ears poking out of their helmet.


	3. Poe

Poe’s not sure when he comes across the first kid what will happen to him when he sends him back to his house on Yavin. He’s mostly sure his father would take the poor kid in. Put him to work, most likely, but feed him and give him a safe space for a time. He doesn’t know Rey’s there until after the brother and sister are on their way. He finally asks his father how the kids are doing, and if it’s all right if they stay. Kes tells him he’s lost his boyhood room, and there’s someone who seems a bit on edge that he hasn’t come by for a visit yet.

“I told them it’d be awhile. I still feel like there’s something I’m missing.”

“Oh, the kids haven’t talked about you,” his father says. “I was actually a bit confused how they kept managing to find this place. Figured it was the girl.”

“Girl?”

“Yeah, Rey, she’s here. Bit different than you described her. Beebee-ate and his new skittish friend are here, too. Hey, you didn’t tell me she was flying around in Han’s ship.”

“That’s… that’s good,” Poe says once he finds his tongue. He supposes it almost makes sense why he’s finding these kids, why he sends them to his home, and why he’s still out here, propelled on by something he doesn’t understand.

“She told me you set it on fire!”

“She told you that, huh?”

“Yeah, we’ve been swapping all sorts of Poe Dameron legends.”

Poe sighs and wishes he could be there, mainly to save his own pride. He manages to extract himself from the conversation. He’s got things to do; no, he doesn’t want to talk to Rey. She’s probably mad at him for sending her a bunch of kids. He hopes she doesn’t think he’s pushing her to do something she’s not ready for. Maybe he _should_ talk to her and clear the air, just so there’s no misunderstandings, but the call’s ended before he changes his mind. He flips the switch on the comm and decides against calling back.

“She already pushed me away,” he says to the empty freighter. “Why make it worse.”

He’s played that last conversation back a thousand times in his head, and the night before, too. They’d been back and forth and up and down for months; they’d talk about nonsense for hours and share stupid jokes, and then be picking each other apart in the next minute. She could be so stubborn and self-righteous, and he’d wind her up and be difficult on purpose. But then that last night, when it all almost ended, and then it didn’t, she’d kissed him.

_“What are you doing?” he asked, breathing heavily with her wrapped in his arms. She’d been through hell, they all had, but he could see it on her skin and in her eyes._

_“Are you going to fight me on this, too?”_

He didn’t, he couldn’t. The next day, amidst discussions of what their next step was to be, Rey was different. Or maybe, she was the same; he only saw the parts he wanted before. She wasn’t going to stay. She didn’t want to be a part of what they were doing. It wasn’t her place. He tried to convince her that they needed her, he needed her. But there were things she had to do, things that didn’t involve him, or anyone else.

So he sent BB-8 with her, so she wouldn’t be alone, and he let her go.

Finn left shortly after on his own important quest. Poe remembers looking around the suddenly very busy base and realizing his part was also over. They don’t need a fighter jock or a General; they need politicians and community organizers and social workers. There’s no enemy left to fight, and Poe feels a pull elsewhere.

Eventually, after the four kids, the pull stops in a cantina on an Outer Rim world. It’s not the typical sort of place one would find out here—it’s clean, for starters. There are families filling the place and not just loners lurking in corners. They serve good food and a variety of local juices, not just terrible backroom brews. It’s not what he expects, and he never expected to find a youthful Mandalorian giggling under his helmet.

“Poe Dameron!” the Mandalorian greets him with an almost child-like glee. “Hero, you are!”

Poe grins, but still isn’t sure what to make of this one. He’s short, and his voice is pitched like it hasn’t quite finished changing over from childhood. There are also the two large, green ears poking out of his helmet. From only the ears, Poe can’t pinpoint his species, but he’s heard some of the Mandalorian ways and doesn’t ask to see his face.

“I did what I could,” he answers.

A woman with dark hair sets out a plate of food and a drink on the table across from where the Mandalorian is sitting. She smiles at Poe and gestures for him to sit down. “Mando told us you were coming.”

Poe takes the offered seat and glances around again at this unusual space. “Quite a place you’ve got here.”

“Mando has kept this place a sanctuary. Chased off the First Order’s baby snatchers.”

Poe nods and lifts his glass to his new helmeted friend. “Then you are a greater hero than me.”

“Much good you have done, Poe Dameron. And continuing you are. Because of you, safety foundlings have.”

Poe wants to ask how this creature knows about what he’s doing, but there’s a tickle in the back of his head he recognizes and his hands clench. “Please, don’t do that.”

The Mandalorian nods his head in a tilt that feels like an apology. “Open, the future is. But my help you will need. An old friend we must find.”

Poe thinks this sleepy little town might protest to losing their protector, but the cantina maiden presses her forehead into the Mandalorian’s helmet and they both say, “This is the way.”

When they land on Yavin IV, it’s surprisingly empty. The Mando is still asleep in the back—he slept most of the way and Poe wonders just what he’s gotten himself into. Poe gets out of his ship and stands on the cracked permacreet debating what he’ll say to all the many people now living in his house. He doesn’t have to wait long—the familiar disc of the _Falcon_ dips down through the clouds.

The kids rush down and he’s excited to see them, too. They all look so much more energetic and well-fed than the last time he saw any of them. BB-8 zips down, too, with his cone-headed friend following close behind. “Good to see you, too, buddy,” Poe tells BB-8, then looks back up towards the ship, towards her. “Why don’t you guys go in and see if Pop needs help with anything.”

They all shuffle off, some needing a bit more prodding than others, then he plants his hands on his hips and looks up at Rey, still waiting at the top of the _Falcon’s_ ramp. He smiles and thinks she looks beautiful, radiant, and he tells her. He can tell she doesn’t really feel it as she glances off to the side before she walks down to stand in front of him.

He can’t tell if she’s mad or upset that he’s here, but she hasn’t yelled at him or told him to leave. She looks tired, he thinks, and unsure. Poe takes a breath and then takes a chance and wraps his arms around her. He lets out the breath when he feels her arms wrap back around him.

“Why were you away so long?” she asks in barely a whisper, but there’s a long, complicated answer to that. But… did she miss him? That’s what it sounds like. Poe’s heart swells.

“I was looking for someone,” he tells her, and it’s most of the truth. “I didn’t know it until he found me.”

They turn to watch the Mando slowly toddle his way down the ramp of Poe’s freighter. He feels Rey gasp next to him and there’s a long, quiet minute where he’s pretty sure both Mando and Rey are staring at each other quite intently.

“Has he come to help Finn?” she finally asks.

“Finn? What’s wrong with Finn?”


	4. Finn

“Hello?” Finn asks into the darkness. It’s a lonely darkness, trapped here in this room. Sometimes, there’s a window, and he gets the chance to see his life being lived without him. He likes Poe’s father an awful lot and he can tell where Poe gets his kindness and good-hearted nature. Rey’s here, too, and she glows brilliantly. There are moments when he feels like he can almost touch her.

They can’t seem to hear him though, and his body moves like a marionette in mud. His mouth doesn’t quite form words, though he’s managed grunts and nods—some semblance of communication. At least he has the HoloNet to keep his mind moving.

He’s not really sure what happened to him. He’d been traveling with Jannah, he remembers that. From what he’s picked up from the conversations around him, they were looking for something and found more than they bargained. Finn doesn’t remember what it was, or what transpired. Perhaps it’s better that way.

“Hello?” Finn asks again, because there’s an odd sensation somewhere in this dark room. Like someone is trying to get in. Different from the way Rey tries, and different from the children that swarm around her. (Though she’s told them _not_ to try, they still did it anyway.)

A door appears in front of him, and there’s a weird light on now that wasn’t there before. It’s a blue door with some intricate designs. It’s new and strange, and he’s unsure what to do with it. Finn pokes at it.

There’s a knock from the other side. And _that_ has definitely never happened before.

And then, there’s a door knob—an old fashioned one that turns, as if he’d thought it into existence. “Convenient. I’ll take it.”

Waiting for him on the other side is a squat, green alien. So small, Finn wonders if it’s a baby. It reaches out a tiny, clawed, green hand and flexes its little digits.

“Wow,” Finn breaths. “You’re… stupidly cute. I didn’t know I could think of something this adorable. I want one. Will you come home with me, green baby alien?”

It makes a gurgling noise that sounds like a sigh and stretches its little fingers even further towards Finn until finally he takes its outstretched hand.

It’s slow at first, like coming out of an unexpected nap, and then his senses are suddenly awash in sensations—noise, colors, the rough fabric of the couch on his skin. There are other sensations, too—feelings, and _feelings._ It’s like touching things with his mind instead of his fingers. He feels Rey’s worry, and he _knows_ it’s Rey. There are others, too, that he doesn’t recognize but somehow feel familiar.

“Finn?” Rey speaks, her delicate and calloused fingers encircling his.

He blinks and his eyes blink, just as fast as he thinks the muscles into moving. He turns his head and he sees her there, right in front of him, and not through a window.

“Rey,” he tests her name on his lips and smiles wide when he hears his own voice. And then he feels joy from the entire room—Poe’s there with relief washing over him, and someone else.

“No,” a voice says, slightly modulated. “Keep me, you may not.”

Finn laughs as he sees the little alien, bigger than what he had met before, and also wearing armor, but still with those large, green ears. He doesn’t understand how it all happened, but knows that this small Mandalorian guided him out of the cave he had found himself in.

“Thank you,” he says with a nod, hoping the Mando understands that Finn doesn’t actually want to keep him.

“What happened?” Rey asks. “What were you doing? Jannah said it was some Sith temple—”

“Sith? No,” the Mando says definitively. “Jedi archive, it was. First Order stole; Empire before them.”

“That’s right,” Finn says slowly, as his mind is still unfolding. “I could feel it calling to me, but it had some sort of failsafe. Like you had to be a real Jedi to unlock it, and I’m not.”

“Not. Yet. Hmm?” the Mando says with a childish chortle.

“Are you a Jedi?” Rey asks. The children are all watching at a respectable distance, but they’ve managed to gradually squish in closer, trying to hear everything interesting that’s happening.

“Mandalorian, I am. Gone, the Jedi are. Return, they may, or may not.” He looks to Rey as he speaks, his helmet tilting slightly towards her. Finn can feel the strange emotions rolling over both of them—the Mandalorian has hope and respect for Rey, and even though Rey feels doubt, there’s excitement at the prospect of not being alone.

The crowd parts as if realizing that the Mandalorian is ready to leave. Finn says another thank you, and it choruses around the living room. Poe settles into the seat next to him and pulls him into a hug, and Finn can tell he’s avoiding speaking because the emotions are threatening to overwhelm him. Finn meets Rey’s eyes for a moment, but she chases after their strange visitor.

Finn’s not back on his feet as quickly as he would have liked. His body is sore and his memory comes back in waves. The sleeping arrangements get all changed again when Finn insists on moving out of Rey’s house. (But it’s not her house, she insists, it’s Kes’ guest house. No one else is living in it, Rey, he tells her.) Finn moves into Poe’s old room because getting in and out of Jannah’s puddlejumper is still a little rough on his knees, which bothers him to no end. Poe sleeps on the couch, though Finn rolls his eyes every time. There’s really somewhere else he should be sleeping.

“You need to talk to him,” he finally tells Rey. They’re sitting out under the tree because Rey loves this big, glowing monstrosity, and Finn has to admit it’s a balm to his still reeling brain.

“I talk to Poe all the time.”

“I mean _talk_ to him.”

Rey shifts from her usual cross-legged position and starts distractedly picking at the grass under her fingers.

“I think it really hurt him when we left,” Finn says after a moment when she doesn’t respond.

“I know.”

“So apologize. Get it out there and let him know how you feel. Rey…” He scoots closer to her and pushes her face towards where Poe is showing one of the kids how to peel a koyo. “You’re a million times stronger in this Force stuff than me, and Poe does _not_ hide how he feels.”

Rey watches Poe for a moment, but then she shakes her head. “He feels the same to me as he has since I met him.”

“Yeah, because I’m pretty sure it was love at first sight for that guy. It was for me.”

She looks sharply at him and he knocks his shoulder into her playfully. Maybe his friends will figure it out, or maybe he’ll have to lock them in a closet until they finally get over themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finn's chapter was so short, so have a twofer. 🤣 Thank you so much for reading and all the lovely comments!! 🥰🥰🥰


	5. Rey

Poe hasn’t left. It’s been over a week since the small Mandalorian, who never gave his name, has come and gone. He left contact information, just in case they got into another Force pickle (his words). She thought maybe Poe and Finn and Jannah might head out and further inspect this Jedi archive now that they know what it is. Not that merely knowing would help—they’d still need a Jedi. The Mandalorian declined—he’s gifted with the Force, but has chosen a different path, and Rey can’t blame him.

Finn’s as good as new and taken over all physical training aspects for the kids. It’s mostly them chasing him around, or four versus one with a bolo ball, or target practice with a stash of water pistols they found in the hangar. Poe joins in sometimes, but mostly he works on Jannah’s transport, or fiddles with the _Falcon_ or the A-wing. BB-8 splits his time between helping Poe and following Rey around, though she tells him he can go and help fix machines if that’s what the little droid wants.

Rey, for her part, would like to see a real Jedi archive, but doubts even she’d be able to open it. She’s hardly a Jedi. She has some books and ghosts that visit, and all of these people that call her “Master,” but she still doesn’t feel like she’s achieved the mythical state of “Jedi.” And she finally admits she rather quite likes it here on Yavin with Kes and the kids. It’s not a school—no, she won’t call it that. It’s a home. Now with Finn and Poe here, it almost feels complete.

“What’s got you looking so sullen?” Poe asks, breaking her out of her wandering thoughts. He steps up the one step onto the small porch of her two-room cabin and sets a plate of food on her lap. “You didn’t come over for dinner, so I brought you some.” There’s not another chair on the porch, two won’t fit, so he leans against the banister and shoves his hands into his pockets.

“Thank you,” she says quietly and starts picking at the food. “Just wondering how long it’s going to stay like this.”

“How long do you want it to?” he asks, as if it’s that simple.

 _Forever,_ she thinks, but that’s unreasonable. Poe can barely stand still for five minutes and Finn and Jannah were already off on their own mission when they got sidetracked by injury to come here. Even the kids will all grow up soon enough and go off to live their own lives. And she should probably do something with her own life that isn’t sitting around quietly wondering how long it will be before everyone leaves her.

When she doesn’t answer and keeps eating, Poe changes subjects. “It’s good this place is getting used.”

“Kes said he built it for Shara?” she asks between bites.

His shoulders shrug slightly and he ducks his head and Rey wonders if she should have brought up his dead mother. “Sort of. The main house is kind of small, so when my mom got pregnant, my dad and granddad built this house so he could move out and the baby could have his room.”

“Oh.” Rey quickly chews and swallows her food. A bit too fast because a morsel gets stuck and she coughs and taps at her chest.

Poe moves quickly and crouches down in front of her. “Are you okay?” he asks as he finds her glass of tea and hands it to her, taking the plate of food from her lap before she spills it.

“I’m fine,” she tells him after taking a long gulp and wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes. “Just went down sideways.”

For a moment, she thinks he loses himself because he’s rubbing her knee comfortingly and smiling up at her through the curls that have fallen in front of his face. And for a second, Rey loses herself because her only thought is that he probably hasn’t had a haircut since leaving the Resistance behind. Or a shave. But it suits him. He quickly seems to realize his forwardness however, and pulls his hand back.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t know about the baby.”

“It’s fine, Rey,” he says, the smile still there. “I made peace with what happened a long time ago. Pop almost tore this building down a couple times, but couldn’t do it. Said it felt like she was still saving it for something. Guess it was you.”

“Can’t imagine Kes ever wasting any labor.”

Poe laughs lightly and nods. It’s getting late; the sun is setting and Rey knows there’s some sporting match on the holovid they were all planning to watch together. Poe stands and squeezes her hand gently before he steps off the porch and heads back to the main house.

“Poe,” she calls after him, getting to her feet. “If I wanted to stay here, would that be okay?”

He gives her a sideways look and squints a bit in the setting sun. “Of course. Aren’t you staying here now?”

“I wasn’t planning on staying long,” she says, repeating the same, tired mantra.

He grins at her and holds back the laugh she can see coming because she’s been here for months now. “You can stay here as long as you want, Rey.” He waits a beat, just in case she has anything else to say, and then turns again and takes a few more steps back to the house.

“Poe!” she calls again.

“Yeah, Rey?”

“Are you going to stay?”

“Maybe,” he calls back, and it’s just silly now because they’re practically shouting at each other. And maybe? What kind of answer is that?

“Poe!” she calls again because he’s started walking away again. “Can you just—“ she shouts, but drops her voice as he mercifully walks back to her, “get back here. This is getting ridiculous,” she finishes quietly.

“Yes, Rey?” he asks standing on the step below her porch.

“I’m sorry,” she says again, though now for a different reason.

“Rey—”

“I’m sorry I left. There were so many things muddled in my mind and in the Force and I couldn’t fix any of it on Ajan Kloss or with the Resistance.”

“Rey, Rey,” he reaches out and again grabs her hand, rubbing soothing circles over her knuckles. “It’s okay. I understand.”

“But I hurt you.”

“Yeah, you did.” His hand moves, leaving her hand and gently resting on her cheek, rubbing away the tears gathering at the corner of her eye. “But I can both understand and accept why you had to leave and be hurt by it. Just like I’ll always hold a bit of resentment for my baby brother that he took my mom away, but still know it was never his fault.”

“Are you going to stay?” she asks again, this time her voice barely above a whisper.

“Do you want me to stay?”

“Why does it have to be my decision?” She’s loud again, practically shouting, and pulls away from him, stomping her foot in irritation. “Just tell me what you want!”

He steps up onto the porch after her and quickly grabs her around the waist, stopping her from storming into the house. The press of his lips against hers is just as sudden, and when he pulls away after barely a second, he’s already breathless and she can almost feel his heart pounding through his shirt. Like every other time, he so easily loses his composure as soon as she gets upset.

“I want you, Rey,” he says quickly, his eyes boring into her own. “And I’ll stay on this little moon with you if this is where you’ll be. Or I’ll follow you on another Jedi adventure. Or we’ll go out and explore the stars and see what kind of trouble we can cause.”

Her cheeks flush as the desire swirls between them and Rey is surprised that the months apart have done nothing to douse the fire that had erupted during their only night together. She often wonders if it was only the rush of victory and trying to run from the pain of her past that had led her into Poe’s arms, but standing here now, she knows those weren’t the reasons. He kisses her again, more than the last time, with his hands gripping her waist and holding her to him. Her own hands start wandering, pushing up against his loose shirt, but then she stops, pulls her lips from his, and sighs as she rests her forehead against his.

“Tell me what you _want_ , Poe. Please, don’t put our future squarely on my shoulders. I can’t… I can’t carry it right now.”

“Our future?” he echoes with a grin and nuzzles his face into her neck. She sighs again and he pulls back, looking only slightly more serious, but with eyes still drooped in a lovesick haze.

“Truthfully?” he asks, and she nods; she would want nothing less. “I want a break. I want to sleep in. Eat too much of my dad’s cooking and not space rations. I want to get to know all these kids I found but didn’t really understand what I was doing with them except helping them find someplace safe. I want to soup up my mom’s A-wing and show off to my buddies that I haven’t seen in years.

“And…” he continues his enjoyably long list, “I want to get to know Rey from Jakku, and fall asleep next to her, and wake up with her, for as long as she can tolerate an old starfighter pilot like me.”

Rey can feel her cheeks getting even brighter as she smiles. She loves all the little dreams that he shares with her. And it’s a relief to know that he wants some of the same things she does. “I don’t sleep in,” she teases him. “Up at dawn.”

Poe laughs and squeezes his arms around her tightly. “Pop probably won’t let me relax much anyway.”

He kisses her again, and again, and Rey thinks she could get used to having Poe Dameron around all the time. He whispers in her ear as his lips begin to travel, something about how much he’s missed her, but it’s cut off by a whistle from across the yard. They quickly realize they’re still standing on the porch in full view of Finn, and anyone who came out to find out what was taking Poe so long to come back inside. Rey grins, hardly embarrassed, they wouldn’t have been able to keep this a secret for long, and she doesn’t want to.

“We’d better get inside before Pop comes out,” Poe says quickly and pushes open the door. “He’s got rules about _relations_ happening under his roof.”

“Well it’s a good thing he told me this was _my_ roof,” Rey tells him with a laugh.

There’s a bursting of emotion more intense than she’s ever felt from Poe before as he laughs and practically tackles her back into the cabin, the door shutting behind them.


	6. Kes

In a year, there’s almost a dozen of the little weeds springing up. Rey still refuses to call it a school, even though the first boy, Kaleb, has graduated to teaching the younger ones how to sit still and meditate under the tree. They build a proper bunkhouse with a second kitchen and large common room, and the power demand for his little farm shoots up dramatically so they plant a fresh new field of koyo and other vegetables. With the war over and the trade lanes reopening, they’ll be able to turn a profit soon enough, and Poe’s already got plans for what they’re building next.

Kes still teases them when the try and sneak off to their cabin in the middle of the day even though he gave them their blessing and Poe gave her Shara’s ring almost right away. They talk about kids of their own to add to the brood they’ve collected, but Rey thinks she’d like to travel and see the stars a bit more before that. Poe thinks he’ll go ahead and build an addition to their house, just in case.

Finn and Jannah come and go, though sometimes Finn comes by with a girl named Rose. Kes likes her—sweet as the flower she’s named after. They come with news of the wider galaxy and Rey asks Poe if he misses it out there, but he tells her he doesn’t. Kes never thought he’d see the day when his go-go-go boy would settle down and take the scenic route, but here he is, living at home with a wife and a whole lot of kids.

“It took a while, babe, but we got that huge family we always wanted,” Kes says quietly to the glowing tree in his yard. It’s one of the few times where there aren’t kids sitting under it or climbing it. “You were right about the girl. She’s something special. The daughter we always wanted—now we got her. Poe’s damn lucky.”

His time with the tree is, as it always is these days, short-lived. Rey walks up and smiles at him, squinting in the midday sun. “Good talk?” she asks him.

“Not all that talkative today. Think I yammered on enough for the both of us.”

“I just wanted to say thank you,” Rey starts as he turns to walk away. “You took me in. You took everyone in, and I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t.”

“Don’t get all misty on me now, kid,” he tells her and pulls her into a fatherly embrace. “You brought a life back into this place that it hasn’t had in… well, a long time. And you brought my son home, which I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Now you don’t get all soft on me, old man,” Rey says with a wet laugh as she tries to not get caught in the emotion of the moment.

“You did good,” he tells her.

“We both did.”

He gives her another squeeze and then starts to walk off, nearly catching one of the five-year-old twins as they barrel across the lawn towards Rey.

“Hey, Rey,” he calls, turning back to look at her. “How long you think you’ll be staying?”

“A little while longer,” she tells him with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this short little venture to Kes' Jedi School. :D

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr.](https://rinskiroo.tumblr.com/)


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